nb-order-validator 0.1.1

A CLI tool and pre-commit hook to verify Jupyter Notebook execution order.

nb-order-validator

A pre-commit hook and CLI tool to verify that Jupyter Notebook code cells have been executed in consecutive order.

Why nb-order-validator?

When working with Jupyter Notebooks in a collaborative environment or CI/CD pipeline, it's important to ensure that notebooks are executed in the correct order. This tool validates that all code cells have consecutive execution_count values (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4...), helping you:

• Catch notebooks that were executed out of order
• Ensure reproducibility of notebook results
• Maintain code quality in team environments
• Integrate notebook validation into your CI/CD pipeline

Features

• Fast validation using streaming JSON parser (handles large notebooks efficiently)
• Pre-commit hook integration for automatic validation
• Parallel processing support for multiple notebooks
• Zero dependencies (only requires ijson)
• Comprehensive error reporting

Installation

As a pre-commit hook (Recommended)

Add to your .pre-commit-config.yaml:

repos:
  - repo: https://github.com/b-trout/nb-order-validator
    rev: v0.1.0  # Use the latest version
    hooks:
      - id: check-nb-order

Then install the hook:

pre-commit install

As a standalone tool

pip install nb-order-validator

Usage

As a pre-commit hook

Once configured, the hook will automatically run when you commit .ipynb files:

git add notebook.ipynb
git commit -m "Add analysis notebook"
# The hook will validate execution order automatically

As a CLI tool

Validate a single notebook:

check-nb-order notebook.ipynb

Validate multiple notebooks:

check-nb-order notebook1.ipynb notebook2.ipynb notebook3.ipynb

Use with shell globbing:

check-nb-order notebooks/**/*.ipynb

Exit Codes

• 0: All notebooks have consecutive execution counts
• 1: One or more notebooks have non-consecutive execution counts

Examples

Valid Notebook

A notebook with cells executed in order (1, 2, 3, 4...):

$ check-nb-order analysis.ipynb
# No output, exit code 0

Invalid Notebook

A notebook with cells executed out of order:

$ check-nb-order analysis.ipynb
❌ Incorrect execution order: analysis.ipynb
# Exit code 1

Multiple Files

$ check-nb-order notebook1.ipynb notebook2.ipynb notebook3.ipynb
❌ Incorrect execution order: notebook2.ipynb
# Exit code 1

How It Works

The tool checks the execution_count field in each code cell of your Jupyter Notebook:

1. Extracts all execution_count values from code cells
2. Ignores markdown and other non-code cells
3. Allows trailing null execution counts (unexecuted cells at the end)
4. Verifies that remaining counts form a consecutive sequence

Valid Sequences

• [1, 2, 3, 4] - Standard consecutive order
• [5, 6, 7, 8] - Consecutive starting from any number
• [1, 2, 3, null] - Trailing unexecuted cell is allowed
• [] - Empty notebook is valid

Invalid Sequences

• [1, 3, 4] - Missing execution count (2)
• [1, 2, 2, 3] - Duplicate execution count
• [1, null, 3] - Unexecuted cell in the middle
• [3, 2, 1] - Reversed order

Requirements

• Python 3.10 or higher
• ijson >= 3.4.0.post0

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Repository

GitHub: https://github.com/b-trout/nb-order-validator

Author

b-trout ([e-mail])